1. The Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a header providing a protective housing around a pin array in a printed circuit board and in particular to a header that can be used to provide protection on one or both sides of the printed circuit board with a stand-off on one of the sides.
2. The Prior Art
It is well known in the electrical connector industry to provide an array of fixed pins in a printed circuit board. These pins are usually gang inserted or sequentially inserted in a first step of a manufacturing operation to utilize the circuit board. No difficulty arises in the insertion of the pins but the subsequent handling of the boards during the steps of manufacturing can cause substantial problems. Frequently the boards, with a pin array already fixed therein, are simply thrown into a stack for subsequent handling. During this rough treatment it is not an unusual occurrance to have one or more of the pins bent to a misaligned condition. It has heretofore been the common practice to have the operators visually realign the pins with such tools that are available, such as merely a pair of needle nose pliers. Such handling frequently has a delitorious effect in that the operator's untrained eye cannot accurately align the pins plus the rather crude tools can damage and/or remove plating from the pins.